Designing Scientific Research Posters By Dan Kenzie and Mary McCall

Designing a Scientific Poster

Content of a Scientific Poster Title –An effective title should clearly communicate the subject of the poster in a way that appeals to a reader. Keep the length of your title to 1 to 2 lines. Abstract –An abstract is often not necessary, because a poster presents similar material as an abstract. Refer to the guidelines for your conference. Introduction –Generate interest in your topic with a minimum of background detail and jargon.

Content of a Scientific Poster Materials and Methods –Include a rationale for why you chose the methods you did and, if they would help, tables or figures. Results –Start with a summary of your results. Then, discuss the relationship between the data and your research question. Conclusions –Explain the significance of major findings. (Connecting this study to previous research can help).

Content of a Scientific Poster References –See conferences guidelines for appropriate format. –If this section becomes too long, decrease the font size. Acknowledgements –Acknowledge anyone who gave you feedback or otherwise contributed to the project, including financial contributors. This section can also disclose any conflicts of interest or commitment.

Visual Design of a Scientific Poster Layout –Maintain sufficient white space, keep column alignments logical, and provide clear cues to your readers how they should read your poster elements. Content –Do not overload the poster with text. It should be roughly 20% text, 40% figures, 40% space. –Left-align your text. (Fully justified creates gaps) Font –Use a non-serif font for the title and headings and a serif font for body text to promote readability.

Visual Design of a Scientific Poster Color –Use 2-3 colors for your poster design and make sure the background and text have a high contrast. –Do not chose a dark and/or busy background. –Avoid very bright color combinations. Diagrams –Give your graphs titles and labels for each axis. –Never give your graphs colored backgrounds, grid lines, or boxes. –Avoid displaying 2-D data in 3-D graphs. –Make sure that details on graphs and photographs can be comfortably viewed from 6 feet away.

Considering Conference Guidelines Always carefully read conference guidelines, which may or may not give specifics on: –What to include –Size of the poster –Available materials (Should you post to a board yourself?) –Which documentation style to use –Other expectations

Where Can Students Find More Help? Purdue University Writing Lab Heavilon 226 Web: Phone: (765)

Works Referenced Design and Layout. (2011). Retrieved from: Graves, L. Scientific poster design [PDF document]. Retrieved from: ScientificPosters.pdf The Parts of a Scientific Poster. (2011). Retrieved from: parts.aspxhttps:// parts.aspx Purrington, C. (n.d.) Designing conference posters. Retrieved from Schlamadinger, D. How to make a scientific research poster. [PDF document]. Retrieved from: acssa.ucsd.edu/forms/ACSSA_posters_howto2_DES.pdf

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